VC made the comments on Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrated on campus, as part of HRD ministry's Vijay Veerta Abhiyan, in the presence of Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Gen V K Singh.

File photo of JNU V-C M Jagadesh Kumar.

New Delhi: The Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University M Jagadesh Kumar has drawn flak from the JNU Students' Union for demanding a "battle tank" on campus to instill nationalism and "love for Army".

"By demanding a battle tank the VC has exposed his idea of nationalism, which is war mongering," JNUSU President Mohit Pandey said.

He said at a time when the students across universities are worried about seats cut, fellowship, and fund cut, the VC wants a tank. "We understand nationalism in a different way."

Talking about the freedom fighters, he said, "They established universities like Jamia etc and never endorsed war mongering. Going by the nationalism of our nationalist leaders - we believe that as students we should focus on contributing in nation building and that can only happen with seats and funds for education."

VC made the comments on Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrated on campus, as part of HRD ministry's Vijay Veerta Abhiyan, in the presence of Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Gen V K Singh.

The event was attended by celebrities such as cricketer Gautam Gambhir and members of Veteran India, which is an organisation of Army veterans. There was a `Tiranga yatra' that carried a 2,200-foot tri-color from Ganga dhaba to the convention centre.